Country Kosovo First mention 1330 Area code(s) +381 290 Elevation 640 m Population 2,829 (1991) | District Mitrovica Time zone CET (UTC+1) Car plates 02 Area 219.5 km² Municipality Skenderaj | |
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Poljance (Serbian Cyrillic: Пољанце) or Polac (in Albanian) is a settlement in the Skenderaj municipality in Kosovo. The village is exclusively inhabited by ethnic Albanians; in the 1991 census, it had 2827 inhabitants.
Contents
Map of Polac
Geography
It lies in the Drenica region, at the source of the Vrbica river, a left confluence of the Drenica river. It lies on both sides of the regional Skenderaj-Glogavac road, 4–7 km southeast of Skenderaj. It is 640–680 m over sea level. The rural settlement lies on a cadastral area with the a total of 2195 hectares (K.O. Staro Poljance 694, K.O. Novo Poljance 767, K.O. Kraljica 734 ha).
Poljance includes two major physiognomic parts: Staro Poljance (Džamijska, Gruda, Koca, Veljić and Zonić Mahala) and Novo Poljance, of which the latter was administratively joined into the present settlement in 1975. Novo Poljance was an independent village before, situated to the east, established after World War I, with Serb and Montenegrin settlers from the vicinity of Danilovgrad, Nikšić, Mrkonjić Grad, Bosanska Krupa, among others.
Middle Ages
The 1330 Dečani chrysobulls of Serbian King Stephen Uroš III (r. 1322–1331) mention the great village of "Strelac", and several surrounding villages: Čigotovo (Čikatovo), Vrbovec, Poljance, Glabotino and Kudrino (Kudrin). Toponomastic study shows that Poljance bordered Strelac on the northeast. There exist an old and newer Serbian cemetery in the village.
World War II
The partisan guard in Novo Poljance, composed exclusively of Albanians, was captured due to treason, on January 30, 1945. At this time, there were a minor part of ethnic Albanian Partisans that crossed to the nationalist Balli Kombëtar, and killed Serbs in their units. A court was held and Šaban Poluža and Mehmed Gradica were sentenced to death. They were never executed as Osman Zonić took them to refuge during fighting, and hid them in a room were women stayed.
6 soldiers, hailing from Poljance, of the "Boro Bukmirović" and "Razim Sadiku" battalions of the First Macedonian-Kosovan National liberation Brigade (Yugoslav Partisans) fell in January and February 1945.
Kosovo War
According to the Serbian newspaper Pravda in January in February 1997, Jonuz Veliqi, an Albanian official working for the state structures of the Republic of Serbia, was nearly killed by during attacks of the Albanian paramilitaries. On August 3, 1998, a civilian worker for the Serbian Interior Ministry was wounded by an automatic weapon. Poljance was in the hands of the Kosovo Liberation Army until March 22, 1999, when Serbian police forces launched an offensive into Drenica. After March 23, 1999, several abducted ethnic Serbs were held prisoners in an old mine near a brick factory in Poljance by Albanians.